Elfyn Evans produced the best drive of his rally career to take command of Rally Argentina.

The Dolgellau flier won six of Friday’s eight special stages to grab a lead of almost a minute.

Evans has a great chance of ending his search for a World Championship victory on his comeback to the series this year.

The 28-year-old said: “It’s been a really positive day for us – everything has been working well and we got ourselves into a pretty good rhythm from the word go.

“I’ve really enjoyed the driving and what more can I say…? The car has performed really well and the driver’s not been too bad either!

“We’re really glad to be here with no dramas and in such a strong position. But we need to remember that there is still a long way to go.

“The stages tomorrow are really nice, but quite challenging and we’re expecting another tough day out there which is always the case in Argentina.

“But right now, it feels pretty good. Tomorrow, we just need to go out there and continue to enjoy it.

“We’ll try not to think too much about the result and just focus on ourselves as if it’s a brand new day.”

Evans and co-driver Daniel Barritt took full advantage of the conditions in their DMACK Ford Fiesta right from the off on Friday.

He reeled of five straight stage wins on the challenging gravel roads and ended the lead with a 55.7 seconds advantage over Norway’s Mads Ostberg.

M-Sport team chief Malcolm Wilson said: “It has been an absolutely fantastic day for Elfyn – probably the best drive of his career.

“He put down a fantastic marker this morning and managed his drive perfectly over the afternoon.

“He’s always performed well here, but his performance this year has been really impressive.”

Evans has 215.28 competitive kilometres left to contest over the next two days as he looks for that breakthrough win.